Bhubaneswar: Berhampur police on Wednesday took Kurupatti Bhuyan (35) and Chintu Pradhan, the shooters hired under an alleged conspiracy to eliminate senior advocate and BJP leader Pitabas Panda, to recreate the crime scene in the Brahmanagar area here.
Two motorcycle-borne assailants had gunned down Panda outside his residence on October 6.
They are among the six accused whom police took into custody this morning for two days for further interrogation. While Chintu was arrested on October 22 along with 11 others, including the alleged key conspirators, former Berhampur MLA Bikram Kumar Panda and ex-mayor of the city Shiva Shankar Das, besides BJD corporator Malay Bisoi.
Kurupati along with Uma Bisoyi, who allegedly arranged for shooters to execute the murder, was nabbed from the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border during the wee hours of Monday after a frantic search of 26 days.
According to police, former Berhampur
“> MLA and present BJD Ganjam district president Bikram Panda and former BeMC Mayor Siba Sankar Dash alias Pintu Das allegedly plotted to eliminate Pitabas Panda over political, personal and financial reasons. Following which, sitting corporator of Berhampur Municipal Corporation Malaya Bisoi, an associate of the former Berhampur MLA, sought the help of Uma Bisoi, an anti-social, to hire contract killers.
They also roped in advocate Madan Dalei into their plan, which involved a financial deal of Rs 50 lakh.
On October 6, On Oct 6, Kurupati and Chintu conducted a final recce and were handed a bike with a fake number plate, new clothes and two pistols. Kurupati allegedly rode pillion with Chintu and when Pitabas Panda returned home on his scooter at 10.01 pm, the former fired the fatal shot. The duo fled and reached near Sitalapalli village where they changed their clothes and hid their guns. They then abandoned the two-wheeler near a tea stall at Rameswar before taking a bus from Bhubaneswar to Puri, from where Chintu boarded a train for Bengaluru. After a few days in Puri, Kurupati along with Uma Bisoi stayed at the farmhouse of Sunil Hota, a close associate of Bikram Panda, for four days. The two had later fled outside the state.
Hota was arrested hours after the arrest of Bikram Panda and 11 others. Later, Sunya Chandra Das was also taken into custody for allegedly providing shelter to sharp shooters initially hired from Bihar along with Malaya Bisoi and Madan Dalei in his house at Alakapuri in Berhampur.
Uma with the help of one Jogendra Rout had hired Sishupal Kumar Paswan and Kundan Kumar, both natives of Bihar, besides Bipin Swain of Hinjili and Simanchal Naik of Haripriyapur village to execute the crime. He also handed over two guns and bikes to the four to murder Pitabasa on September 14. However, it had to be aborted after one of the shooters had to rush back home for a medical emergency.
Uma later convinced two persons from his native village Banthapalli to commit the murder. He handled both the logistics and financial transfers linked to the plot.